Jesus gives His followers the chance to have divine joy which is more powerful than happiness.

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OC Church of Christ

And now we're gonna have a sermunion from Marcel.

Aw, let's give it up for the one.

The only, the Marcel Hall.

There you go.

Man, that's funny.

That's funny.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate that.

Come on now.

There you go.

That's why you, okay, I see what you be doing.

There you go.

There you go.

That's awesome.

I appreciate that.

I need that when I walk into my house.

. Well, my kids know I'm home.

You know what I'm saying?

. Yeah.

Pops is here.

Act right.

Amen.

Be respectful to your mama.

You know what I'm saying?

Amen.

Amen.

Well, uh, it is been a good morning so far, hasn't it?

Uh, so encouraging to acknowledge those.

We've been working hard.

So cool to meet Britney.

I know if you're like me, you thought she was, uh, she had a little sister,

sister in her, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

They're like, oh, you're Indian.

Oh, okay.

All right.

There you go.

All right.

So, uh, that makes sense.

Cause the way she was singing, I thought she had some sister soul in there.

Well, she's, uh, she's Indian, so I guess, you know, they got some

sister soul in a different way there.

grateful to be able to deliver a message from God's word this morning.

We started the year, um, with this statement, when you, when we truly

know who we belong to, we will believe God's plans and purposes and will

become who we were created to be.

And so we broke up our year into these three parts in which we focused on

first belonging and, and really walked through many layers and facets of that.

And we talked about believing.

And for last trimester here we've been talking about becoming.

And over the last couple weeks we've been talking about how because of

Jesus, we can become people of hope.

And then last week we talked about because of Jesus, we can become people of peace.

And today we're gonna be talking about how because of Jesus,

we can become people of joy.

And so let's go ahead and let's say a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, God almighty, king of kings, and Lord of lords.

God, when we are able to think about the words that we're singing, when

we're able to think about the treasures and the blessings that we have in

Christ, it does something to our souls.

Father.

It ignites something in us.

It allows us to draw closer to you.

It allows the in inner turmoil or whatever is going on inside

to be redirected to your will and God, we want to acknowledge you.

We want to praise you.

God, we want to lift your name high and Father, I pray that your word, your holy

word, the word that that is breathes from you, God, it will transform us today.

God, it will enlighten us.

It will engage us.

It will draw us to greater faith and greater conviction about who

you are and who we are in Christ.

And the opportunity to join you in your redemptive work here

on Earth in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

I want to ask you a question.

What brings you joy?

What brings you joy?

Let's get some people to answer what brings you joy?

Let's get a couple people to answer what brings you joy.

Yes sir.

Street tacos.

Street tacos.

Amen.

Street tacos.

You know, I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine and I appreciate

your faith right there cuz you know there's some other things on the

street that I see that are really popular and I refuse to purchase one.

I I just don't have the faith, Kyle, you know what I'm saying?

But I appreciate that you get joy from street tacos.

All right.

I saw another hand on this side.

Yes, sir.

Hugs.

Hugs.

Hugs.

Give.

Give that man a hug right now.

Can he get some joy?

Hey man.

Elijah, you give him a hug too.

That's double joy right there.

There you go.

All right.

In the back there waving your hand.

Yes, she right there.

Two sons.

What'd you say?

Two sons.

My two sons.

How old are your two sons?

Two and six.

Enjoy it now.

. Two and six.

Royal.

Oh boy.

Wait till they're 12 and 16.

I wanna hear that same thing.

. Come on.

That's good.

That's awesome.

Yes.

Time with my friend.

Time with my friend.

Then she goes over here and touches their friends there.

Okay.

Yes.

Who's that?

Marty?

Yes.

Prayer.

Prayers being answered with, yes.

Prayers are always answered, but we love when God says yes.

All right.

Okay.

Doca being here Sunday morning.

Amen.

Being here Sunday morning, praising God with all of you.

Come on.

Dork was an, a student right there.

Huh?

She was like, what does the teacher want to hear?

Okay.

Come on.

There you go.

Alright.

Be Corey.

Go ahead.

Uh, I'd say can also being here, but the church of, um, coming back the

second round from the very first time I came, he says music and then also

bringing, coming back to our church here.

He used to come a long time ago and now he's been coming back to our church here.

Come on.

Amen.

All right.

All right, let's go one more.

Eric.

Yes.

Um, quality time with other people.

Quality time with other people.

Okay.

That's good.

One, one more.

Bobby.

Yes, go ahead.

Bobby.

His wife.

That man got into an argument earlier.

He's trying to make up for it.

Uh, yes.

My wife, she gives me great.

I'm just playing.

I'm just playing.

Bobby, so good to see you.

Please keep praying for Bobby.

As many of you know, Bobby has a lot of health challenge, but, uh,

man, it's so good to see Bobby.

He had a, he had a heart attack, uh, just about a week and a half ago.

And, uh, so he had a heart attack during the middle of the

week and was here on Sunday.

Amen.

So if you have an excuse, you better go talk to Bobby.

Oh, my toe hurts, man.

That man had a heart attack and he was here.

. I want to hear that.

All right.

Come on.

The wife giving him joy.

Amen.

Well, let's go ahead and let's talk about joy.

And in fact, what I want us to do here is get a biblical sense of joy.

And so, uh, I know a good friend of mine, Chris Colossi, loves the,

uh, the, the Bible project videos.

And so they have this cool Bible project video and I want us to

go ahead and play that right now.

Let's go ahead and do that.

Being in a good mood is really great, and most languages have lots of

words to describe the experience like happy, cheerful, joyful, and so on.

The same goes for the languages of the Bible.

In ancient biblical Hebrew, there's a variety of words like or Gil.

In the Greek New Testament, there's EU or asis.

Each word has its own unique nuance, but they all basically refer to

the feeling of joy and happiness.

Now, what makes these biblical joy words interesting is noticing the kinds of

things that bring happiness, and also seeing how joy is a key theme that runs

through the whole story of the Bible.

Let's start with sources of joy.

On page one of the Bible, God says that this world is very good, and so naturally

people find joy in beautiful and good things of life, like growing flocks

or in abundant harvest on the hills.

The poet of Psalm 104 says A good bottle of wine is God's gift

to bring joy to people's heart.

People find joy at a wedding or in their children.

There's even a Hebrew proverb that compares the joy that perfume

brings to your nose with the joy a good friend brings to your heart.

However, human history isn't just a joy fest.

The biblical story shows how we live in a world that's been

corrupted by our own selfishness.

It's marked by death and lost, and this is where Biblical faith

offers a unique perspective on joy.

It's an attitude God's people adopt, not because of happy

circumstances, but because of their hope in God's love and promise.

So when Israelites were suffering from slavery in Egypt, God raised

up Moses to lead them into freedom.

And the first thing that Israelites did was sing for joy.

Even though they were in the middle of a desert, they were vulnerable.

The promised land was still far away.

They rejoiced.

Later, biblical poets looked back on this story and they remembered how

the Lord caused his people to leave with joy, his chosen ones with shouts

of joy, this joy in the wilderness.

This was a defining moment, a way of saying that the joy of God's

people is not determined by their struggles, but by their future destiny.

The theme appears later in Israel's story, when Israel suffered under the

oppression of foreign empires, the prophet Isaiah looked for a day when God would

raise up a new deliverer like Moses.

That's when those redeemed by the Lord will return to Zion.

With glad shouts, with eternal joy crowning their heads, happiness

and joy will overtake them.

And while the Israelites waited, they chose joy to anticipate

their future redemption.

This is why it's significant that when Jesus of Nazareth was

born, it was announced as good news that brings great joy.

We're told that Jesus himself rejoiced and gave thanks to God his father, when

he began to announce the kingdom of God.

He even taught his followers the same joy in the wilderness saying, when

people reject you or persecute you for following me, rejoice, be very glad

because your reward is great in heaven.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus commissioned his followers to

go out and announce the good news that he was the risen king of the world.

And as they did so, the early Christian communities were

known for being full of joy.

Even when they were persecuted, like when the Apostle Paul was sitting in a

dirty Roman prison, he could say that he's chosen joy even if he gets executed.

He called this the joy of faith or joy in the Lord.

He believed it was the gift of God's spirit.

A sign that Jesus' presence is with you.

Inspiring hope in the midst of hardship.

And when you believe that Jesus's love has overcome death

itself, joy becomes reasonable in the darkest of circumstances.

Now, this doesn't mean that you ignore or suppress your sorrow.

That's not healthy or necessary.

Paul often expressed his grief about missing loved ones or

losing friends or his own freedom.

He called it being full of sorrow and yet rejoicing as he acknowledged his pain.

He also made a choice to trust Jesus that his loss wouldn't be the final word.

This is very different from the trite advice.

To turn that frown upside down, Christian joy is a profound decision

of faith and hope in the power of Jesus' own life and love, and that's

what biblical joy is all about.

Amen.

It's really cool that we can talk about joy in the biblical sense.

And how we as again, God's people because of Jesus, we can have joy and

as joy can be sustained can happen even in the midst of trial, even in

the midst of turmoil, we can have joy.

Let me ask you this here.

Have you ever had some joy in God?

Have you had joy in the Lord?

Yes.

I want you to go ahead, let's do this for a quick second.

If you, if Jesus has ever brought some joy in your life, wait.

Lot of you said Jesus brought some joy in your life.

Is that what you just told me?

Yes.

Okay.

We're gonna do something, man.

I haven't done this since I've been here in Orange County and it's a risk.

He said, oh, you know what I, after I said that, I said, oh, I don't

know if I should have said that.

Can I walk it back?

Here's what we're gonna do.

Again, show me some hands here.

Show me some hands if, if you've ever had some joy because of Jesus.

Okay?

Can we have some people share how Jesus brought you some joy?

Oh, now we got some hands all the way.

Come down.

Okay.

All right, here we go.

Here's what we're gonna do.

All right, gene, come on up.

All right, here we go.

Alright.

Right.

Marty, you can come on up here.

I saw some hands over here from some young folks, and now y'all getting quiet.

Savannah, come on up here.

All right, come on up here.

All right, here you go.

We're going to give you, all right, here we go.

We're going to give you just uh, you have 60 seconds.

Oh wow.

That's because if you go longer than 60 seconds, I'm gonna have the guys come up

here and start playing music again, . And we're gonna treat it like it's an award

show, , and we're gonna pull you to the side and then the sermon's gonna go long.

And we know how much everybody loves a long sermon.

So look, you clap it.

So here you go.

We want you to share in 60 seconds or less how Jesus has brought joy to your life.

Say your name first and then go ahead.

All right.

Okay.

I'm Jean Alexander and I.

The first thing I thought of was when I became a disciple.

I was, uh, very unhappy with my life, and I praise.

I prayed to God, where are you?

And the next week I was invited out to church and I started citing the Bible and

one of my best friends still to this day.

In fact, I found the picture 25 years ago.

I got baptized and then I thought of my, um, my son's baptism

and my daughter's baptism.

And it's amazing . It's so nice to have a family that's all disciples

and I, it brings me a lot of joy.

Amen.

Um, my name's Savannah Carillo and I think the biggest moment was when

my whole family became disciples.

We have a lot to participate in the same love and joy that.

Jesus gave to us.

So yeah, that was cool.

Amen.

Uh, many times I've had, uh, questions.

I needed answers and prayers needed answered, and sometimes, uh, a sermon will

come up and give me an answer for what a problem I'm having or read the Bible.

Uh, also read a devotional.

And sometimes, uh, brothers and sisters like you will come up

and give me some exhortation.

Say, Hey, what about this, this, and that?

And that's God following up, uh, things I need to have done, spirit.

And that brings me joy.

Thank you all.

Hey, man, give it on up.

They all were under 60 seconds.

Where they, Kyle?

Did you time them?

Kyle was on them there.

Amen.

Man, that's a lot of pressure, huh?

On the preacher after what you just said.

There you go.

I gotta, I gotta say something to meet and need right now.

Huh?

There you go.

Well, here's what we're gonna talk about here.

We're gonna talk about how Jesus gives us divine joy.

Jesus gives us divine joy.

We're gonna take it up in John chapter 15.

In John chapter 15.

We're gonna read here and we're taking it up.

We were in John 14 last week, and so this is called, you know, a lot of scholars

call this the farewell discourse.

Jesus just finished his last supper with the, uh, uh, with his

followers before he's going to get, uh, arrested and then crucified.

And so he gives this discourse, they're having this conversation,

and again, he gives some rich theology for us and he answers some

questions and it starts to make a little bit of sense to the apostles.

And at the beginning of John chapter 15, he starts off by

saying that he is the vine and that his followers are the branches.

And so there's this idea that he keeps saying throughout verses

one through eight of remain in me.

And so again, there's this imagery that the branches, in order to be fruitful,

have to remain in the vine, and so that's the context in which we take it up.

In verse nine, the Bible reads, it says, as the Father, this is Jesus speaking

again to his followers, as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Now remain in my love.

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.

Just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

We'll stop right there.

It's interesting to note here right at the beginning, just like we talked

about last week, that this peace, this love, this joy, there's this connection

between a relationship with God and also our keeping of Jesus' commands.

Did you see that?

That's right.

He says it clearly look, remain in my love.

He says, keep my commands and you will remain in my love.

Not that God won't love us, but we won't have this loving relationship

in which we're designed for if we defiantly, if we intentionally

go against his will and his word.

And so we always have to remember that this is a relationship, but we play a

role in this relationship and part of our role in keeping this loving relationship

is to keep the commands of Jesus church, or you understand what I'm saying?

And so we won't spend much time, we talked about it last week and how fitting,

we talked about the umbrella of peace.

And boy, oh boy, we need some umbrellas today, don't we?

We need some umbrellas of peace, but we can see, even hear the umbrella

of joy when we have the joy of Jesus.

Now here's what's interesting.

He says, so that my joy may be in you.

He didn't say, I just want you to have some joy in your life.

Yeah, I want my joy to be in you, and then your joy will now become complete.

Now, Jesus must have been a joyful person in order to say this, because if he wasn't

joyful and he says, Hey, I want you to have my joy, that would've been a bummer.

That's like being around the grumpy person, the critical person.

And he goes, yeah, if you follow me, you could have my joy . That's okay.

So some of us said that they, Jesus was all serious, or he was

a man of sorrows, and he was that.

But obviously he had a lot of joy because this would've brought

them comforts when he said this.

So being around Jesus wasn't a joy, kill or kill joy?

No.

He obviously exuded and had a lot of joy, says, Hey, this joy that

I have, I want it to be in you again, not just a type of joy.

Not just joy, but he wants us to have his joy.

And so as disciples of Jesus, we get a chance to become a people of joy when

we're, when we remain in his love.

You know, there's this really cool verse in Romans 14, the, the Apostle Paul wrote

this letter to the church in Rome, and he says, here he is talking about a number of

different things, but this is really cool.

He says, for the kingdom of God, it is not a matter of eating and

drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirits.

That means true Christianity doesn't result in a stale,

sad, or lifeless existence, but it results in peace and joy.

Who doesn't want that?

But again, as God's people, we get a chance to experience this, but we

get to become people of joy again.

But let's talk about this type of joy because we can confuse it with

maybe what we think is divine joy.

Because again, he says, or we've stated here, Jesus gives us

divine joy because it's his joy.

Jesus is divine.

So the joy that he gives is what divine joy.

You guys get what I'm saying here.

And so this divine joy is different than happiness.

Divine joy is different than happiness.

Let's go ahead and let's break this down.

You see, happiness is a status update, but joy is a state of being.

You see, happiness is a status update, and we've all done that, haven't we?

All of us on social media there, we, we go over here and let's put our feeling in.

That's what happiness is.

But divine joy is a state of being.

You see, happiness is a feeling.

While joy is an attitude and choice, happy, happiness is a fleeting feeling.

It's an emotion just like sadness, jealousy, fear, but it's fleeting.

You might be happy about something, you might be happy about those street tacos.

You might be happy about that hug.

You might be happy about whatever it is that we mentioned.

But what happens, it won't sustain you, will it.

It doesn't last forever, and you can't be continually happy forever

by those things that we mentioned.

But they're awesome, but they bring happiness.

But what Jesus brings is divine joy.

Divine joy sustains us when happiness eludes us.

You see, divine joy makes happiness more than a fleeting feeling.

You see, happiness is based on happiness, while divine joy

is based on the eternal one.

You see a lot of things that we think of when we're thinking of what makes

us happy are based on circumstances, often what beyond our control.

Kyle gets that street taco and it doesn't taste too good.

He doesn't bring divine joy, does it?

Now?

He's discouraging.

I seen Kyle when he doesn't get the food that he likes in.

It's not a pretty sight

and so we can see here happiness is based on circumstances that

we're not even in control of.

Think of the things that you mentioned that you were thinking of.

Most of it is outta your control, isn't it?

My friends, will they be with me?

Oh, I can initiate, but will they reciprocate?

A lot of these things, and these aren't bad.

We're not knocking happiness.

God, I do believe, wants us to have some happiness, but that's

not his aim and goal in life.

It's to form us back into his image, but he provides and brings divine joy.

You see, divine joy is more stable because it's based on the

unchanging, unwavering love, power, and sovereignty of the Almighty God.

It's based on his unmoving, unchanging word that is powerful, that's

so powerful as life and death.

You see, divine joy starts with the choice and leads to a long lasting

state of being, but the problem that you and I can have is when we either

seek or expect from God to be happy.

. You guys know what I'm talking about.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

We seek happiness.

We seek this feeling, however, it's fleeting or we expect, well, God,

you're supposed to make me happy.

And then when we are in the midst of troubles or trials or our relationship,

we're trying to wrestle it out, we're like, well, this doesn't make sense.

Well, God didn't promise happiness.

He wanted to give us divine joy.

And so many times then after we have this struggle, we have the wrong perspective.

We can get discouraged.

I don't know if this Christianity thing really works or it's not fun anymore.

. I had a, a, a, a a person send me a text message.

They told me that they wanted to leave God, and, and, and, and,

and this was several years ago.

And they said, you know, I've been through some hard times.

And, uh, and what'd they say?

I, I, I, I read it the other day.

And, uh, they said, you know what?

It's just not bringing me any more joy.

And it was heartbreaking, really.

He didn't have divine joy.

Divine joy had had evacuated.

He was talking about the happiness that he was expecting wasn't there in his life.

So therefore, I might as well leave God.

You see, we get in trouble when we seek or expect happiness, when

what's available is divine joy.

You see, if we're not experiencing divine joy, it's probably

because our perspective is off.

And or we're not remaining in Christ.

Our relationship with him is fragile and or we are defiant

when it comes to his commands.

Instead of keeping his commands, we defiantly intentionally

give it the Heisman.

Oh, there you go.

Alright.

Hi, USC Heisman Trophy.

It just came.

The spirit flows.

. If you don't know uscs quarterback won't.

The Heisman trophy yesterday.

Hey, I didn't even have that in my notes, Brian.

It just comes, it just comes.

The spirit's moving baby.

The spirit's moving.

Don't stop him.

. That does bring me some happiness.

And you know what?

Somewhat joy, but it brings me anger at the same time.

Amen.

Sorry, I'm getting, I'm getting distracted.

Here we go.

. We get joy from what Jesus says and remaining in his love.

We get joy from his word.

I appreciate Marty saying, you know what, when God has a message

for me in my niece, it changes me.

It gets me focused.

And it what he said, it brought him joy when he remained in Christ, when

he started to keep His commandments.

This divine joy comes from when we obey.

You know what?

Oh man, if I just, I'm struggling, but when I do the

right thing, guess what happens?

This divine joy starts to take place and you go, this is good.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna remain here.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna continue this divine joy.

Yes, there's happiness in this, but it can happen.

Even as we saw from the video in the midst of chaos, they can be heartache

and pain all around us, but yet there's this weird transcendent, this, this,

this unexplainable joy that we can have in that moment that can sustain.

Again, yes.

We have times of sorrow.

We have times at which we mourn in grief.

We saw that on Wednesday.

There's a time for everything, but joy can happen.

Divine joy is available for you and me as the people of God.

Church, are you with me this morning?

I wanna share a couple more observations about divine joy.

You know, as followers of Jesus, we have divine joy because we have

been forgiven of all our sins.

Look at what it says in Romans chapter eight.

It says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set

you free from the law of sin and death.

There is no condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus.

Did you hear what I just said?

Sir, there's no condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus.

Have any of you sinned?

Just once it looked like Sosa's never sinned.

He looked at me like, mm, I ain't never sinned.

, you sinned before Sosa course.

Oh, oh, oh, now it's the course.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Anybody sin?

Uh, a lot.

Some of y'all like, man, I've been sending a whole lot this week.

You should, you know, ask, ask my spouse.

, you sin the lot, haven't you?

If you're like me, you sin.

Maybe send on the way up here.

Maybe sin when you got up in here.

But guess what the scriptures say?

If you're in Christ Jesus, there's no condemning, no sentencing, no penalty,

no death, no fear of hell or execution.

There's no fear.

I don't have to worry about it.

Some of us, we get worried, oh no, I don't know if you're in Christ

Jesus, you are not condemned.

Amen.

You have been forgiven, not of 1, 2, 3, but of all sins.

Amen.

And that was through Jesus on the cross.

I don't know about you, but boy, boy, when I think about it, I'm like, hallelujah,

sir, that I've been forgiven a sin.

Yes.

Because boy, oh boy, if I wasn't forgiven a sin, I'd be in some trouble.

Or you with me church.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Maybe you're the type who hasn't sinned.

Yes, you have.

You just raised your hand.

There's no condemnation, no condemning from the God Almighty.

He says, you are forgiven.

When that settles in.

What does that do?

It produces some joy.

I'm a free man.

Even if we have some bad days, there are a couple things that we could do.

We can say, one, the tomb is still empty.

Yes, sir.

And we can say, hallelujah, that there's no condemnation for me.

I had a, I had a conversation yesterday with a relative of mine who, uh,

who, who, who's, he was in some hard times and he was calling me and

he was sharing some things there.

And, uh, he had been in prison for, for about 14 years.

And as we're talking, he said, man, you know what?

But least I'm not in prison anymore.

We can always say that spiritually, you know, man, there's some

things going on in my life.

I've done some, I've made some mistakes, but hallelujah.

I'm not in spiritual prison anymore.

I am not condemned church.

We should always have a reason to say amen in hallelujah.

Amen.

There's another reason, another observation that I have as dearly

loved children of the most high God.

We have divine joy because of the second coming of Jesus.

Right?

First Thessalonians for says, for the Lord himself will come down from

heaven with the loud command, with the voice of the arch angel, and

with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that we who are still alive and our left will be caught up together with him

in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

He says, Jesus is coming back.

Not a possibly, not a maybe.

It's a fact.

Jesus will come back and you and I, those who are in Christ, Jesus

will be what The Almighty God.

Forever the faith will become sights.

The Lord that you are worshiping in sing it to today.

You will now have eternal life with him and all of his people.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

Amen.

I don't know about you, but I like this world, but boy oh boy, I

really don't want this to be my end.

It says Jesus is coming back and he's gonna bring us home with him.

That's fantastic.

We have something to look forward to.

As my friend Steve Stevenson says, he always says, what

the best is yet to come, sir.

Why?

Because it's true.

No matter what happens, the best is yet to come because one day we'll be in heaven

with our creator and maker, God Almighty.

That's awesome.

We have something to look forward to that the world unfortunately doesn't have.

Again, we always have hope in Christ.

We have peace and we have a joy because we know what's ahead and where we're going.

You know, it's like kids, it's, it's Christmas and what happens?

Kids get excited about.

What about presents?

I had my daughter come up to me the other day and she says, pops, uh,

what are you getting me for Christmas?

I looked at her and said, girl, you know nothing.

You know, I don't give you no gifts.

Tell me y'all looking like, man, that's a bad parent.

I was just playing.

Okay, , we get one gift.

All right.

There you go.

All right.

And she was excited.

She was like, what?

And so there's been packages coming in, right?

Karina, she's had these packages coming in, and some of these are gifts.

Some of them, she's sneaking in some shopping stuff, you know?

I'm like, girl, what you doing ? What's this box?

This guy?

No, we ain't got that many gifts to give this year.

, what is this box?

Oh, I just got a couple things.

. Sorry again.

I'm digressing.

Forgive me Brian, and forgive me.

It just comes out.

And so she's excited.

She's looking for these gifts, man, I can't wait.

What it's gonna be like.

And that's what we have spiritually.

We have someone to look forward to.

The Lords coming back.

The greatest gift of salvation is coming.

What's it gonna be like, man, I can't wait to see.

Can we talk with, with the, with the ancients and the faith, what's

it gonna be like to meet Moses?

What's it gonna be like to see the Lord?

To see the angels to sing out and cry.

It's gonna be amazing.

They said, man, this Christians said there's gonna be no

tears and no pain, no sorrow.

Ooh, I wanna see that day.

You see, we have something to look forward to because of the second coming to Jesus.

Right?

So here's what's really cool.

It hit me.

I was like, wow, this is so cool.

Right?

And so we, we, we get this joy from the past, right?

Because of what Jesus did in the past, because he forgave our sins.

We get this joy from the past.

Then we think of the second coming, and we have joy for the future.

So we have this joy from what happened in the past, and then

we have this joy for the future.

And then what does that lead to?

That leads to what?

Joy in the presence.

How awesome is that?

We get to look back and go, wow.

Hallelujah.

And then we get to look forward and go, man, I can't wait.

This is awesome.

And that leads us to right now having the joy of the Lord, can

I get a hallelujah for that?

I don't know about you, but that fires me up.

It gets me going.

I'm excited.

Because why?

We're grateful.

God, you've done so much.

God, I can't wait for the faith to become sight and have eternal life.

And so it brings us joy again, no matter what the circumstance

is, it could be spiritually and mostly reigning all around us.

But because I look back and I look forward, I now have joy

in the midst of the moments and that joy could be sustained.

So what should we do in response to this?

Well, I think it's easy.

Let's look back and look forward.

Let's look back and let's look forward because that will help us to remain

in Christ that will help us to in our relationship with God Almighty.

And this will help us to make the right choice to keep his commands in the

moments you see when we're thinking of what we've been forgiving of.

Man, I don't wanna commit that same sinny mistake anymore.

When I know what I'm going toward, man, I want to do what's right now.

And so we have this joy, we remain in the vine and we keep his commands and we have

this cool cycle that starts to take place.

So we need to look back and we need to look forward.

So let's get real practical action steps this week, not, not this month,

not, hey, maybe brothers and sisters, I want to call you to write this down.

Take a picture, whatever it is that you do, whatever's your flavor there.

And I want you to go ahead and join me in this.

And first off, the first thing is to meditate on the forgiveness of

sins and second coming of Jesus.

Just one day this week, one day this week.

Just go ahead and have some time in which you meditate, you, thank you, reflect upon

all that you've been forgiven of and all that you will enjoy when Jesus comes back.

And then secondly, join me in this.

Let's pray every day, just this week, not asking, pray for the rest

of your life this, but every day, this week for the church family, us

right in here to become people of joy by remaining in Jesus Christ.

We're praying for all of us, not just individuals, but that all of us can truly

experience and become people of joy.

So maybe you need to put that in as a, as a, a, a reminder on your phone there,

or whatever the case is, maybe have a prayer app or whatever you need to do.

But let's pray for all of us to experience and to become the people

of joy by remaining in Christ.

And if you're visiting here with us, whether you're online or you're here today

and, and you're not sure if you are in Christ, I wanna encourage you today set

up a time to study the Bible so you can understand what does it mean and how do

I actually become a person in Christ.

How do I get this forgiveness of sin?

And how can I experience this joy that was mentioned today?

Right now we're gonna take communion.

This is where we take the emblems representing Jesus', sacrifice

upon the cross, the juice, and the bread representing this blood and

this body that was broken for us.

And as we take this, we can remember the joy and the opportunity that

we have to become people of joy.

And that this joy is not happiness.

This joy is divine joy.

And that all of this joy, all of this peace, all of this hope comes

through the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

It says in Hebrews nine, verse 28, just as people are destined to die

once and after that to face judgment.

So Christ was sacrifice once to take away the sins of many and he will appear

a second time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting.

For him.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for Jesus.

Got all that we have.

All of us in the here who are in Christ Jesus, all of us who are in

the vine got every single blessing we have is because of your son Jesus.

Thank you for your plan of salvation.

Thank you that now your spirit dwells within us.

God, that we can have the hope, that we can have the peace, that we can

have the joy that comes from you.

And God, we know that it came at a cost Father, in order for us to have

all of our sins forgiven and came at the cost of Jesus dying on the cross.

And God, we are humbled and we are grateful.

And God, we're so grateful that the hope comes from the resurrection of

Jesus, him raising from the dead.

Now that we have hope in two one day, we will raise and be with you.

And so God, we are so thankful.

That Jesus chose, that he persevered, that he was sinless

and that he followed your will.

God, may we follow his example following your will grateful,

humbled, and be united with you in the moments before everlasting.